In network systems such as subscriber television systems, a digital home communication terminal (“DHCT”), otherwise known as the set-top box, is capable of providing video services connected to the subscriber television system, and is typically located at the user's premises and connected to the subscriber television system, such as, for example, a cable or satellite network. The DHCT includes hardware and software necessary to provide digital video services to the end user with various levels of usability and/or functionality. One of the features of the DHCT includes the ability to receive and decode a digital video signal received as a compressed video signal. Another feature of the DHCT includes providing Personal Video Recorder (PVR) functionality through the use of a storage device coupled to the DHCT. When providing this PVR functionality or other stream manipulation functionality for formatted digital video streams of Advanced Video Coding (AVC), referred to herein as AVC streams, it becomes difficult to determine whether the video stream is suitable for a particular stream manipulation or PVR operation. This is because, for example, the AVC video coding standard generally has a rich set of compression tools and can exploit temporal redundancies among pictures in more elaborate and comprehensive ways than prior video coding standards.